Take Jesus At His Word – You Will Not Be Sorry!

When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” Peter said to Him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.” Matthew 17: 24-27, NKJV.

Most Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we come before You today, thanking You for standing by us in every situation. Please open our eyes to the fullness of this truth, as we study Your holy Word. Amen.

This is a quite unusual story – it talks about getting the money you need to pay your taxes, out of a fish’s mouth! That is the way life is with Jesus. His manner of blessing, “is new every morning” (Lamentations 3: 23)! Sometimes the help we need will come from the most unexpected places, and in the most unusual ways, and at times, from the people we least expect! While I would like to dwell on this for a while, I am more so intrigued by Peter’s apparent ease at complying with an extraordinary request! The impetuous Peter (John 18: 10); the impressionable Peter (Matthew 17:  1-5); the impulsive Peter (Matthew 16: 21-23), does not ask any questions, make any suggestions, or try to solve any apparent problems. He simply does what Jesus asks him to do. And everything went well!

That made me think of Peter’s miraculous catch. After teaching the multitude by the seashore, Jesus turned His full attention to His disciples. Notice that I said, full attention. That is because Jesus is all seeing, and He is always watching! By this I mean that, while “His eye is on the sparrow . . . I know He watches me [and you]” (Civilla D. Martin & Charles H. Gabriel)! He knew that His disciples were having a hard time fishing. He did not ask them if they had caught any fish, He simply told Peter what to do, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (Luke 5: 4, emphasis provided). Good for Peter, he obeyed in spite of what he had experienced, all night, “Master,” he answered, “we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net” (5, emphasis provided). The result speaks very eloquently for itself:  “And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking” (6, emphasis provided). Little did Peter know, that by taking Jesus at His Word, the best was yet to come!

Then my attention was turned to Jesus’ first miracle, at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. The hosts ran out of wine and Jesus’ mother did two things:  She informed her Son of the situation, and then she spoke to the servants:  “ ‘ “Whatever He says to you, do it” ‘ ” (John 2: 5b). And they were glad that they did, “When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, ‘ “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now” ‘ ” (9, 10)! I am sure that Jesus’ plans for our lives is, that every experience, no matter how difficult it may seem at the beginning, should end well.

Oftentimes the problem lies in the way we deal with the problem that we are facing. From these three experiences that we have just observed, there are some good lessons to be learned:  1) Tell Jesus your problem. Mary could have assumed that she would be botheringJesus by taking someone else’s problem to Him, but she did it just the same.  Sometimes we deal with Jesus as we would with any ordinary person. He is not. He is God, and in His hands are the solutions to all of our problems, and the problems of the world! 2) Do as He says. When Jesus told the servants to fill the jars with water, they could have contended, “We do not need more water, we need more wine.” Jesus knows what we need. He knows it better than you and me! We do not know what avenue He will choose to lead us to the solution of our problems. We must learn to do just as He says! 3) Even if you believe that you have already done what he tells you to do – do it again.  Though Peter had done, all night, what Jesus told him to do, he did it again. God is in control of time, the elements, and our circumstances. Sometimes we do what we are supposed to do, but not when, or how, we are supposed to do it. May we learn to trust Him enough, to be willing to do it again! The Savior always knows best!